Anthony

Anthony took some twists and turns on his pathway to success as a 4.0 GPA and Phi Theta Kappa honor society student who delivered the graduate address at the college’s commencement ceremony. 

Only a few years before, Anthony chose to drop out of high school and take the GED test.  After a year of working full-time at a minimum wage fast-food job, and with all of his friends college-bound, he was motivated to take a class in HCC’s 2014 summer term.  It was the enthusiasm and encouragement of his English course instructor that he claims “set me up for greatness at HCC.”  It was Anthony’s determination and focus that helped him build upon this support and turn opportunities into success.

“Whether it was making use of the job fairs to find out more information about the military, or landing an internship, or making use of HCC’s scholarship website to get help paying for school, HCC provided me with the resources I needed; I just had to make use of them.”

Fast-forward to May 2016, Anthony is a senior airman in the United States Air Force Reserve, an intern at Howard Tech Advisors, and has earned his associate degree in network security.  The next leg of his journey includes a transfer to University of Maryland University College’s cybersecurity degree program.

Anthony congratulated his fellow graduates in his commencement speech, saying “Access doesn’t always equal success, in the same way that ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink.’ But I say that everyone who walks across this stage today is a horse that drank twice its weight… What I mean by that metaphor is that everyone graduating today took advantage of the opportunity to further themselves through a quality education, and that is an accomplishment that should not be undermined.”